Is Neverland Dead

by Tom Horonzy

Given thought, it is sad to think kids today will never enjoy the things we did as girls and boys. Like strolling barefoot down country roads, plodding to school through a foot of snow, and body-surfing on towering waves that, in reality, were but three-foot tall, barrel-rolling up on sandy shores.

Other joys lived and loved were racing wood flyers and aluminum saucers down snow-crested hills seemingly doing ninety-five miles per hour like Parnelli Jones. There was also the thrill of watching a bobber start to twitch beneath dangling feet off an oaken bridge while holding a cane pole with a safety pin as a hook.

I also recall riding our bikes down unknown roads, unconcerned about where they led. We were as carefree as a fledgling taking flight, having the wind beneath our wings, so to speak. We would speed along, ignoring the law, running stop signs, and foolishly cutting in front of cars. We had no concern of injury. We were invincible... until the road ended and dark dropped in.

There were also Saturday matinees that began at noon and ran til four. First, cartoons and then two flicks while we licked our Bonomo Turkish taffies and ate Sno-caps and gummy Dots. All the enjoyment a child needed for a quarter, while giving parents a parental reprieve from parenting. (Redundant, but fun when read)

Summers were endlessly enjoyable. Snaring honey bees in a Mason jar as they flitted from one peed-a-bed to the next in daylight while jarring lightning bugs in the twilight. We built forts and dams and collected newts and salamanders; played Canasta, or Gin Rummy to a million points.

Boys, back when, were more energetic, earning cash in any way possible, like mowing lawns, delivering papers, and collecting glass sodie-pop bottles for pennies and nickels.

I cannot recall what girls would do other than hopscotch and jump rope, though every now and again, the two sexes would come together to play hide-and-seek, tag-like games, or hula-hoop contests which the gals always did better. The times back then were peculiar, in a

Dickensian sense, being "the best of times and the worst of times; ages of learning, and foolishness."

To end, I muse, what will children of today write fifty years hence? Their streets and sandlots are empty. There are too few roads undiscovered. Adventures are seemingly made to view, not live, because of video games and artificial intelligence.

Because I lived a Neverland life as a boy, like Peter Pan, I remain a kid today!

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True Story Contest contest entry

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The collage is made of snapshots I've taken over the years. I find photographing children reminds me of good times back in the days of my youth.

Reference to Bonomo, Dots and Sno-cap were candies favored in the fifties.
Parnelli Jones was a race car driver of the era. Canasta and Gin Rummy - card games.

"Dickenese" - a Tale of Two Cities reference. I have been told Dickensian is the correct spelling by one and Dickenese by another. Google likes 'sian.

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Is Neverland Dead

by Tom Horonzy

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